Elbow injury

[Ade]

After climbing (I lead about 9/10a), or more usually working out with weights, I have a pain on the inside of my left elbow (I'm right handed). This becomes worse if I continue to use the joint and icing seems to improve it. Normally everything is back to normal after a few days or a week of little or no use.

From what I've read I think I probably have golf/tennis elbow.

My main concern is that this will get worse over time and prevent me climbing. Are there any long term management or recovery strategies for this?

Ade

[Courtenay]

Hi Ade,

Good question, one many climbers face at some point in dealing with overuse injuries or strains of finger/elbow tendons. You are right to rest and ice the elbow. Another thing to do is take a serious look at your history of climbing frequency and difficulty. Remember that strenuous climbing is just like strenuous weight lifting, and it's optimal to take 2-3 days of rest between climbing until you have built up the techniques and stamina needed to climb more often.

Check out the 4-3-2-1 periodization scheme offered on the Body Results web site (and also linked from Cascade Climbers.com) to see a sample. As you get closer to your climbing season (winter if you're a gym climber, summer if outdoors) you'll want to plan accordingly to peak for your major projects, rather than suffering injury. And make sure you recover between strength/climbing workouts.

Finally, learn how to properly warmup, stretch and cool down, often neglected by those who end up getting injured. Hope this helps give you some ideas for what to improve in your own program. Happy climbing!

Courtenay Schurman, CSCS

[Courtenay]

Hey there Ade,

Any improvement in your condition? Some other ideas I had on this: make sure on the off-season that you are working the opposing muscle groups to climbing muscles to keep the rest of you in balance -- in other words, doing reverse wrist curls can help balance out the forearm muscles; doing pressing exercises can balance out the pulling muscles; and adding triceps exercises can help develop muscle balance in the arms. Let us know how you're doing.

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Courtenay Schurman, CSCS

[Ade]

Well I'm doing more exercises focusing on opposing muscles. I'm also doing more stretching during rock gym sessions. This seems to have helped. I'm gym climbing twice a week mainly bouldering to about 10b/c without problems. I'll try and build wrist curls into my workouts too.

My off season is pretty not existent. Rock ends and ice begins

Thanks!

Ade

 

[Courtenay]

Sounds like there's been some improvement! Another thought I had that was sparked by your comment "my off season is pretty non-existent": try taking 1-2 weeks in between rock and ice climbing, and then ice and rock climbing in spring, to completely rest the pulling muscles -- and cross train for active recovery. This will give your body the breather (i.e. REST) it needs to keep performing at its optimal and prevent injury. Climb on!

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Courtenay Schurman, CSCS

[mark]

Ade, I have a similar injury to yours and like you assumed it was tendonitis. Finally after 4 months of resting, icing, and working the opposing muscle groups I went to the doctor, where to my surprise I found out it was not tendonitis, instead it ends up that my c7 nerve is pinched, a condition that occurs often and has symptons almost identical to elbow tendonitis(on the inside as you described). Treatment included some muscle massage, in the upper back area, from a physical thearpist and some funky stretches. This improved the situation by probably 80% after only a couple of visits. Might be worth checking it out. Good luck.

[mark]

Ade, I have a similar injury to yours and like you assumed it was tendonitis. Finally after 4 months of resting, icing, and working the opposing muscle groups I went to the doctor, where to my surprise I found out it was not tendonitis, instead it ends up that my c7 nerve is pinched, a condition that occurs often and has symptons almost identical to elbow tendonitis(on the inside as you described). Treatment included some muscle massage, in the upper back area, from a physical thearpist and some funky stretches. This improved the situation by probably 80% after only a couple of visits. Might be worth checking it out. Good luck.

ps Hope I didn't post this twice, having problems posting.